Selling to a Scientist with an iPad’s Help – Rusty’s Story
- Oct, 06 2010
- By Rusty Bishop
- iPad, Lead Generation, Science Sales
- 9 comments
Update: We have spent the last 6 months working in the field and observing Sales Reps using the iPad as a Sale Tool.
Our clients come from a variety of industries including Life Science, Medical, Food and Beverage, and Insurance. What have we learned? A lot!
To read about our observations check out these articles:
Selling to a Scientist with an iPad’s Help
Rusty Finally Sells to a Scientist
by Rusty Bishop
Last week I attended a BioTech Calendar vendor show in Los Angeles to visit two awesome life science sales representatives. For the last two months, they participated in the beta test program for our sales productivity app, FatStax for the iPad. They invited me to watch them in action.
My plan was to observe them in their job and to help them use the iPads and our app.
Guess again!
They ended up teaching me how to use FatStax, the app we created and developed. In the process, I got to sell a product to a scientist in person.
Two Reps – Two Styles.
(Names have been changed to protect the innocent)
When I arrived at the vendor show, I found Company X and Company Y’s booths were side-by-side. This gave me the perfect chance to observe both representatives selling their products to scientists. The two of them had been using our FatStax iPad app loaded with their respective product catalogs for the last few weeks.
It was instantly clear that both had developed a unique method for using the iPad to sell their products with FatStax.
The Attractor.
Sara set up her iPad display on the table, facing the customers. Her company’s logo filled the screen, instantly catching the scientists’ eyes. She asked them if they had one. Typically, they would ask her if the company was giving it away at the show, at which point she would say, “No, but I can use it to find products for research. What do you work on?”
This initiated a conversation and led to her looking up a specific product and showing it to the customer on the iPad. Frequently, the interested scientist asked for more information, which she emailed them from FatStax before they left the table.
My favorite moment of the day was when she looked back at me and said, “Did you see that one? He checked his email on his iPhone, and showed me the product email that I just sent. Too cool.”
Too cool indeed.
The Self-Seller.
Mary took a completely different approach. Her product catalog is much larger with around 5,000 SKUs, so there’s no way she could know everything she has for sale. Further, her company releases 5 – 10 new products per week.
Her tactic was to keep the iPad in her hand with the FatStax catalog open. Scientists approached the table and started leafing through brochures. Typically, she asked them what they worked on or if they were looking for specific reagents. Once they gave her that information, she handed them the iPad and showed them how to browse and search for products.
This browsing often led to the scientists discovering products that were useful for their research. One scientist enthusiastically jumped from product to product engaging the representative in a deep conversation about their application in his research project.
Many of them were emailing themselves product information – typing their contact information into the app’s email screen and tapping the send button.
I was floored. I never would have thought to simply hand the iPad to the buyer so they could search directly.
My turn.
Near the end of the day, I got chance to help with a customer. One of the reps was slammed with 5 customers at once and asked if I could jump in and help. I had her company’s product catalog on my iPad also, so I stepped up and asked a waiting scientist what she worked on.
She replied, “Immunology.” in heavily European accent.
I asked, “Are you looking for any particular reagent?”
She said, “No.” head down in a dry mono tone. Uh-oh, I was blowing it.
I asked, “What in particular do you do with Immunology?”
She said, “Cytokines.” in the same monotone.
So I typed “cytokine” into the FatStax search bar and handed her the iPad showing a list of the cytokine-related products. She didn’t even hesitate. She was tapping around, punching out to the website product page, asking questions about the app, about the products. I knew little about the products, but I am scientist, so together we found 2 products that she needed…
…and she emailed herself the information from my app. Just like I had seen all day.
After 10 months of writing incessantly about selling to scientists online, I finally got the chance to sell to a scientist face-to-face and scientist-to-scientist! I was stoked.
What I Learned.
The iPad can be a super-interactive business tool in the hands of an experienced field sales representative. It allows you to initiate a meaningful conversation and engage the customer in a discussion about their issues and quickly find the products that can help them.
It really is that simple.
(FatStax for iPad is currently available on the App Store. We developed this tool to help sales professionals in all industries access their product information at their fingertips to speed up the sales cycle and provide better customer service.)
Launching FatStax for iPad
- Sep, 28 2010
- By Mark Walker
- iPad, Science Sales
- 4 comments
Today is the culmination of about 4 months worth of work for us at Red Funnel. We launched a new iPad app for sales productivity called FatStax. It got approved last night and is sitting on the App Store. We are excited and think it can make a real difference for many sales teams.
Briefly, we created a service that puts company product information easily and quickly onto the iPad so that sales forces can find their products at a tap and then send product details to the buyer, without having to use the website or carry a laptop. There are full details at our new website, www.FatStax.com.
Why?
Frankly, we saw a need and an opportunity for us to create a product that would be useful to a lot of sales forces. When you have selling responsibility for lots of products, it’s not easy to keep track of what’s new, changed, or frankly, everything that is in your catalog. We see examples of potential buyers asking reps in this industry if they have a specific product and then the mad scramble to find it before they leave begins. Sales reps should have that information at their fingertips. At least that’s what we think.
As we talk to our friends and family about what we are doing, they constantly come up with new industries where FatStax can be useful. Even though we started in life sciences, we are learning about other markets where sales people need to have a better way of finding their own products and sending the information immediately to buyers.
Breakout
We’ve been pretty quiet about the project online primarily because we wanted to be sure it worked well (it does). But we have been sharing the app with individual reps for weeks. We have several beta testers that have been using it with some terrific feedback and ideas that made the final product even better.
The whole process of developing a business app for a relatively new mobile device has been rewarding and frustrating at the same time. We plan to write about our experiences in the coming weeks. We are keeping a running list of what we would do again and what we would try not to repeat.
What’s Next?
We enjoy working with clients on their business issues and particularly on their websites. We don’t intend to stop doing that. There is a huge sense of satisfaction when you contribute in helping another business succeed. We intend on continuing to write about issues in the life sciences market place, largely due to all the great feedback we have received.
We also think that mobile devices will radically change the way business and sales works. Having the most relevant information at your fingertips, in front of customers, has the potential for vastly increasing productivity and the value of a sales force. We have a passion for that and want to be a part of that change. Look for us to write about our experiences and thoughts about this industry, too.
If you have an iPad, download FatStax for free and use it with the sample database we included. Let us know what you think here or on the comments section on iTunes.
